What is the Mendeley MCP server?

Mendeley is a reference management software that allows researchers to organize and share research papers, as well as collaborate on research projects. Use it for managing citations and accessing scholarly articles. It provides 30 tools that AI agents can use through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

How do I connect Mendeley to my AI agent?

Add the MCPBundles server URL to your MCP client configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, etc.). The URL format is: https://mcp.mcpbundles.com/bundle/mendeley. Authentication is handled automatically.

How many tools does Mendeley provide?

Mendeley provides 30 tools that can be called by AI agents, along with a SKILL.md that gives your AI agent domain knowledge about when and how to use them.

What authentication does Mendeley require?

Mendeley uses One-click sign in. Mendeley requires credentials. Connect via MCPBundles and authentication is handled automatically.

What can an AI agent do with Mendeley now?

It can search your personal or group library, discover papers in the global catalog, create and update citation records, organize folders, upload or download PDF attachments, manage annotations, and handle trash cleanup.

How is catalog search different from library search?

Catalog search finds global bibliographic records that may not be in your account yet. Library search works on documents already saved in your personal or group Mendeley library.

Can it help with literature reviews and systematic reviews?

Yes. A useful pattern is catalog discovery for new papers, library search for saved papers, folder organization for inclusion sets, and metadata cleanup before exporting or writing.

Can it manage PDFs attached to Mendeley documents?

Yes. Files are separate from citation metadata: the agent can upload a PDF to an existing document, list file records, download file content as base64, or delete an attachment without deleting the citation record.

Does Mendeley support collaborative group workflows?

Yes. The server can list groups, create or update private and invite-only groups, inspect shared documents and folders, and delete a group when the collaboration space itself should be removed.

What is the safest way to delete Mendeley records?

Treat file deletion, document trash, and permanent trash deletion as separate actions. Soft-delete documents first, review trash, and permanently delete only when the citation record should not be recoverable.

Can it read or summarize every PDF in my account automatically?

It can download file content when the connected account has access, but the best workflow is targeted: find the relevant document, inspect or download the attached file, then summarize the specific paper.

Which IDs are interchangeable in Mendeley?

They are not interchangeable. Document IDs, file IDs, folder IDs, annotation IDs, and group IDs refer to different object types and must be used with the matching tool.

Mendeley MCP Server & Skill

Mendeley MCP Server

Connect your account, then chat with AI to run tools.

Turn Mendeley into an AI research workspace: search your library and the global catalog, clean citation metadata, organize folders, attach PDFs, manage annotations, and coordinate shared group libraries.

Best forAcademic ResearchersPhD StudentsLiterature ReviewResearch Librarians

Try this workflow

Build a literature review shortlist

Search my Mendeley library for papers about retrieval augmented generation, group the strongest matches by theme, and return the citation details, authors, year, source, tags, and any notes that help me decide what to read first.

Managed

30 tools

Agent guide included

Opens MCPBundles Studio with this server selected. After sign-in, chat and run tools from the same thread.

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Mendeley

Mendeley is a reference management system for scholarly work. It stores citation metadata separately from uploaded full-text files, organizes records into personal or shared libraries, and supports collaboration through private or invite-only groups.

Data Model

Profile — researcher identity, institution, academic status, and disciplines.
Catalog records — global bibliographic entries useful for discovery and citation import. Catalog results are not automatically part of a user's library.
Documents — library citation records. A document can be personal or group-scoped, can have metadata such as authors, source, identifiers, tags, notes, read/starred state, and can exist without an attached file.
Files — binary attachments, usually PDFs, linked to documents. File deletion removes the attachment, not the citation record.
Folders — personal or group organization containers. Removing a document from a folder does not delete the document. Deleting a folder does not delete its documents.
Groups — shared research libraries. Current group creation should use private or invite-only access; public group creation is blocked by Mendeley.
Annotations — reading notes, highlights, and marked regions attached to documents or files.
Trash — soft-deleted documents. Restore returns the citation record, but original folder membership is not restored.

Common Workflows

Discover a paper in the global catalog by DOI, identifier, title, author, or topic; then create or update a library document from the returned citation metadata.
Search personal or group library documents when the paper should already be in the account. Use catalog discovery when the paper may not be in the library yet.
Create a document before uploading a PDF; files attach to existing documents rather than replacing document metadata.
Organize documents by creating folders, adding document IDs to folders, and removing folder membership when moving between organizational structures.
Work in shared libraries by selecting a group and using that group context for documents, folders, annotations, and files.
Use soft deletion first for documents that may need recovery. Permanent deletion belongs only after trash review.
Folder downloads: when the user wants PDFs from a folder, call download_folder_files with cursor pagination (has_more, next_cursor) until the folder is complete — or list_folder_files first to inspect sizes. Do not loop get_files once per document. Small PDFs return content_base64; larger ones return presigned download_url with spillover: true.

Operational Notes

Document IDs, file IDs, folder IDs, annotation IDs, and group IDs identify different object types and are not interchangeable.
get_files lists attachment metadata (size, mime type, hash) — it never returns PDF bytes. Use download_file or download_folder_files for binary content.
File download returns base64 content and metadata. Large outputs may be delivered as a resource link by the platform.
PDF uploads require a target document, filename, MIME type, and base64 content.
Group deletion removes a collaboration space. Folder deletion only removes an organization container. File deletion removes an attachment. Document deletion affects the citation record.
Catalog search and library search can hit upstream rate limits; narrower identifier lookups or smaller result limits are more reliable than broad keyword searches.

Mendeley MCP Server

What you can do with Mendeley

Example workflows

Context to know first

AI Skill
SKILL.md

Mendeley

Data Model

Common Workflows

Operational Notes

Tools in this Server (30)

Frequently Asked Questions

Setup Instructions

One-click install:

Or add manually

Related MCP Servers

Ready to use Mendeley?

Mendeley MCP Server

What you can do with Mendeley

Example workflows

Context to know first

AI SkillSKILL.md

Mendeley

Data Model

Common Workflows

Operational Notes

Tools in this Server (30)

Frequently Asked Questions

Setup Instructions

One-click install:

Or add manually

Related MCP Servers

Ready to use Mendeley?

AI Skill
SKILL.md